100% Wood House in Amboise, France by Local & Suphasidh.

Hear the smallest breeze rustling the leaves revealing a timber house with a somewhat sleepy nature, slowly settling down and aging with its newfound surroundings. It’s enchanting, and you cannot take your eyes away from it – for a small movement could disturb resting structure and make it sprint further into the forest.

Located in Montlouis-sur-Loire France, around the forest in Bouurdisiere Castle estate, this slumbering being is Local and Suphasidh’s collaborative 100% Wood House (or Maison 100% Bois), who are also the clients. The house was first conceived for the Castle’s second edition of the Forest and Wood Festival in 2017, under the architectural brief that required the structure to be made solely of wood and connect the historical site with contemporary times. This though challenge paved the confronting process of reshaping the design approach and perception of a home that led to the team taking out the first place at the competition.

Related: MUT Design’s Pavilion for World Design Capital Valencia Honours Traditional Crafts.

The approach to the brief for the 100% Wood House began with uniting a timeless material with advanced technological construction. From the frame to the structural columns, to the platforms and façade, pieces were carefully prepared locally off-site before being seamlessly assembled onsite. Timber planks were digitally cut before lining the façade walls, and chestnut trunks that inform the charming column structures were prepared in a sawmill ten kilometres away before being installed on site. All of these were also purposely left untreated, adding another layer of life and narrative to the patchwork of different timber textures.

Internally, the two-storey house approximates 42 square metres. The architects took care in breaking down programs that would allow linearity and flexibility within the functionality of the architecture. The simple strategy reveals the design of a central wet area core with a continuous platform spirally wrapped around. The platform that forms the storeys resembles a split Mobius-strip ramp, generous in space to allow fluidity in organising sleeping and entertainment spaces. It is only the ground floor – with the central bathroom and kitchen counter and sink anchored to the edge of the ground floor remains permanent.

The form addresses the “time of standardized dwellings, (and focus on) the importance of interactions between the inhabitant and his build environment”. From afar, 100% Wood House is like a sculpture with a caramel coloured ribbon gracefully wrapped with openings. Each opening from the ribbon windows offers a post-impressionist vibe of the forest, yet offering privacy where needed. As the façade encapsulates the platform, where it follows the rise also reveals a void, providing a terrace and additional shade and insulation created from the internal platforms.

With pockets big and small to enjoy planning your own space while being protected by elm-coloured trees, 100% Wood House is a beautifully planned home that leaves no wasted opportunity to take your breath away.

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[Photography by Atelier Vincent Hecht.]